The present invention relates to the field of fishing lures. More particularly, the present invention provides a weedless swim bait fishing lure having improved performance with respect to depth and speed of the lure at which swim bait can be fished. Merely by way of example, the invention has been applied to a swim bait, but it would be recognized that other applications can exist. For example, the invention can be applied to a crawfish, a frog, a pan fish, a baby bass, a trout, a shad, a snake, a turtle, a duck, other freshwater baits, and salt water baits, including but not limited to sardines, mackerel, squid, octopus, and others.
One of the greatest sporting activities known is fishing. Fishing often involves using a bait, whether natural or artificial, which is attached to one or more hooks that are tied to a line attached to a fishing rod and reel. The bait is introduced into a body of water such as a lake, stream, or ocean to attract and lure a fish to strike it. Once the fish strikes, sharp hooks coupled to the bait pierce into the tissue of the fish. Oftentimes, the fish becomes hooked in the mouth. After a struggle between the fisherman and the fish, one of them wins. Either the fisherman happily lands the fish or the fish breaks itself from the hook and swims away.
Artificial bait is often called a fishing lure or lure. The lure is generally a soft or hard object designed to resemble and move like an item of fish prey. See, for example, http://en.wikipedia.org. Often times, the lure is equipped with one or more hooks that hold the fish attracted to the lure. Common types of lures include spoons, spinners, plugs, plastic worms, and spinner baits. The lures range from those called Daredevls™ from Eppinger Manufacturing to Senko™ worms from Gary Yamanoto to a variety of spinner baits from Persuader American Angler and other companies.
Another example of a fishing lure for large mouth bass is known as a swim bait. The early pioneers of swim baits include Samuel M. Huddleston and Chomp Josephite, who developed one of the most famous swim baits for their lure company Castaic Lure Company founded in the early 1990's. Huddleston also developed and invented the “big bait” theory. That is, big bass like to eat big baits. Most recently, Huddleston developed one of the leading modern swim baits, known as the “Huddleston Deluxe.” Many other companies followed Huddleston and developed other swimbait lure devices. Although highly successful, the swim baits have limitations.
As an example, most swim baits are equipped with large treble hooks and/or large protruding single hook designs, which are exposed. Such exposed hooks often snag to debris and other structures, which can become expensive and degrade the swim baits action. Additionally, most swim baits are often fairly expensive so fisherman use caution in throwing the bait into heavy cover, such as fallen trees, brush, and weed structures, which may hold very large black bass and other species. Often times, it is difficult to get the swim bait close enough to the heavy cover to entice the large bass to strike. These and other limitations are described throughout the present specification and more particularly below.
From the above, it is seen that improved techniques for lure designs are highly desired.